


Finding Out

by Palizinha



Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:14:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29909913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palizinha/pseuds/Palizinha
Summary: After a day with Phineas and Ferb, Isabella is faced with a weird discovery.
Relationships: Phineas Flynn/Isabella Garcia-Shapiro
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	Finding Out

Isabella would admit she had a bit of an issue when it came to overthinking her relationship with Phineas, at one point.

But she’d grown up. Left ideas of sweeping romance behind.

Phineas was never going to be a romance genius, and that was fine. They were friends, and while not as close as they had one day been (and Isabella was willing to acknowledge that was mostly her fault), they were fine.

She didn’t need Phineas to love her.

Which made the… current situation a bit of a problem.

Because there were two things Isabella learned that afternoon.

The first was that summer was more fun around Phineas and Ferb. Something she had known, of course, having spent so many summers with them, but it had gotten lost somewhere along the way.

The second… was that Phineas had a crush on her.

It wasn’t even one specific thing that made her realize that. Phineas was Phineas, and he’d never change. Or… that was what she thought.

But when Phineas had showed up at her bedroom window in the middle of the night, just to ask her to please spend the next day building something with them, she had known something was up.

Phineas sometimes asked her to go specifically, but it was usually when it was her birthday, or something he felt he needed her there for. He was usually one to respect that Isabella had other things to do, and she pretty much always did, between work and… everything else.

But asking her the night before, when he usually only decided on what to do right before beginning to do it? It was curious.

And the thing was... what they built wasn’t even that revolutionary. Phineas and Ferb’s projects had gotten less impressive over the years because they just didn’t have as much time to dedicate to a project anymore. For anyone else, a romance-themed ride to celebrate the one year anniversary of two of their friends’ relationship would be a lot. For Phineas and Ferb? It wasn’t anything special, beyond the brand of special that came with it being Phineas and Ferb.

Which made the fact Phineas had been planning for it - and asked Isabella to be there - a lot more weird. If she were a kid, Isabella would have immediately assumed Phineas was trying to hint at something, but she wasn’t a kid anymore. So, when Phineas invited her to sit next to him, she didn’t see anything different with that. Isabella had always been Phineas’s go-to partner in Big Ideas when Ferb wasn’t.

If it had been just that - even though it was a lot - Isabella wouldn’t have assumed anything. Phineas had always been like that, and he never felt anything about her.

Or that was the conclusion she had come to, but then there was. That one thing.

The thing when they were cleaning up the mess, and Phineas looked at her.

Phineas had looked at Isabella many, many times throughout all their years knowing each other, and there had only ever been something there in Isabella’s imagination.

But Phineas looked at her before she went home, and he didn’t… stop looking.

It felt like she was the only thing he was seeing, and that was another thing that had only ever happened in her imagination.

She actually took a moment to make sure she wasn’t in Phineasland - that hadn’t happened in years, but it seemed more likely than him having feelings for her.

But it was there. A longing look, even, she’d say. If Phineas had ever looked at her like that before, she hadn’t noticed. And the truth was… she had stopped looking a long time ago, so, it was possible.

It was possible that Phineas’s feelings for her weren’t new. That they’d been around for a while. And she hadn’t noticed.

That seemed… ironic to a weird degree.

And Isabella had no idea how to handle that.

Because… it had been such a long time. She had struggled with her feelings for Phineas - and knowing he didn’t feel the same - for so many years, and giving up on him was something she had had to do. Because it was best for her.

But now, after all this, it turned out he did have feelings for her after all? How was she supposed to deal with this information?

So, for some reason, Isabella called Buford.

“Buford,” Isabella said as soon as he picked up. “Tell me Phineas doesn’t have a crush on me.”

Buford stayed silent for a beat. “You want me to lie to you?”

“What?”

“Look, I have no idea why you called me, of all people, but he definitely has a crush on you. We’ve all been waiting for either of you to make a move for years by this point,” Buford said.

“I called you because I knew you wouldn’t lie about this,” Isabella said. And then got up and started walking around her room. “But I almost wish you had.”

“How does that even work?” Buford sounded incredulous. “You’ve been waiting for this your entire life, what’s the problem?”

“I got over him! Or, I thought I did. Until I realized he had feelings for me,” Isabella knew she probably sounded out of it, but… “Buford, when did Phineas start having feelings for me?”

Buford took a second before he answered. “Do you want to know when we knew or when he did?”

“So he does know,” Isabella said. “There’s no way he didn’t know how I felt, so how come he never said anything?”

“This might come as a surprise to you,” Buford said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “But Dinner Bell is a very oblivious individual. You could have told him to his face you liked him, and he would have answered ‘I like you too, Isabella’ without realizing you meant you had a crush.”

“Right, he doesn’t know how I feel, then,” Isabella said. “When did he start having a crush on me?”

“Honestly, I think he always did,” Buford said. “He hasn’t changed at all the way he acts around you, really, or you probably would have noticed. But I think he knows how he feels because he’s awfully obvious about it when you’re not around, which wasn’t the case before. Besides that one time with the pharmacists, that was super obvious too.”

“That one time- let’s not go there. Buford, what do I do about this?”

“How am I supposed to know?” Buford asked. “I’m basically the only one of your friends - Phineas aside - who has never actually been in a relationship. If you want to talk about your feelings, try Baljeet or one of the Fireside girls.”

“Right,” Isabella said. “Thanks for the honesty, Buford.”

“Go get him and put us all out of our misery, though,” Buford said before hanging up.

Isabella had a choice there. She could pretend she didn’t know and try to put her feelings for Phineas behind her definitely, or…

Or she could actually ‘go get him’.

Once, it wouldn’t even be a choice. But too much had happened, and it had reached a point where insisting on Phineas was hurting her. The... not knowing whether he knew and was just too nice to say anything, the constant overthinking.

But if today had proved anything, it was that… she hadn’t forgotten him as much as she thought she did. Otherwise, why would knowing he liked her shake her up so much?

So, Isabella made a choice.

She’d talk to Phineas and see how it went. Maybe she’d bring up she knew about his crush, maybe she wouldn’t. Seeing him would be what made her decide.

It was getting late by the time she made up her mind, and under normal circumstances Isabella wouldn’t sneak out of her house and go to Phineas and Ferb’s in the middle of the night, but it was a very special situation. She wouldn’t be able to sleep the night with this hanging over her.

Throwing rocks at the window seemed a bit too… teen drama, so Isabella just sent Ferb a text to open his window instead. When she got there, the window was open, Ferb looking at her from it with a raised eyebrow.

“Get Phineas here,” Isabella said. Ferb wiggled his eyebrows and his head disappeared. Isabella closed her eyes in exasperation in return, even though he couldn’t see it.

Phineas left through the front door - looking cute in his pajamas and a confused look on his face.

“Hey,” Isabella said, sitting on the steps in front of his house, and Phineas followed suit.

“Did you need something?” Phineas asked. “Midnight visits aren’t really… a thing you do these days. Though I did just that yesterday.”

Isabella didn’t often go out of her way to spend time with Phineas, and while that always made her feel bad, it felt worse knowing he had a crush on her.

“Today was… interesting,” Isabella said. “And I wanted to talk to you about it.”

Isabella didn’t miss the look on Phineas’s face - the panic he tried to mask, like he feared he had given himself away somehow. Isabella thought she knew how that felt.

“Is it about me asking you to be there?” Phineas asked. “It’s just, you know, Holly and Katie are more your friends than mine, though we’re all pretty close these days after Baljeet and Ginger started dating. I thought you’d want to be there, is all.”

Isabella made a decision, then, watching Phineas rush over himself trying to explain himself, when he didn’t have to. Even if she didn’t feel the same, she wouldn’t have wanted Phineas to feel like he had to keep his feelings a secret. “I know that’s not really why you wanted me here. And I’m sorry you had to ask.”

Phineas looked at Isabella, and she did recognize the pining look once again - it made her wonder how she could have missed it. How she could have tried so hard not to look.

“Isabella, I…” Phineas sighed. “You don’t have to say anything. It’s… I know you just see me as a friend.”

“I think I haven’t been seeing you as a friend enough,” Isabella said. It was true, really - she had been so focused on getting over Phineas, at some point she forgot that they were best friends first. “And a lot of that is because I was in love with you, and was tired of it being unrequired.”

Phineas froze for a split second. “You… you were in love with me?” His voice sounded a bit strained, and Isabella realized why. The way she phrased it kind of made it sound like her feelings were in the past.

“I am,” Isabella said, finally. “I am in love with you. I tried not to be, but… I can’t help it.”

Phineas didn’t say anything for a while, and Isabella gave him the time he needed. It was late, but she didn’t think either of them were going to be able to sleep any time soon. So it was fine.

“You… you wrote me a love letter once!” Phineas said, suddenly. “That was it, right? You sent me a letter, and I remember thinking it was cute when you lived across the street and could tell me whatever you wanted in person any time, but I didn’t get to read it, for some reason.”

Phineas looked a bit out of breath when he finished saying it.

“That’s a weird moment to focus on, but yes, that happened,” Isabella said. “I also almost told you how I felt that day on the island when you were upset we were stuck there. There were so many moments we could be here all night.”

“Then…” Phineas said, his hand covering Isabella’s on the steps. “Let’s… let’s talk about it. And everything else, from both of us. We haven’t talked to each other enough recently.”

“Ok,” Isabella agreed. “Where do you want to begin?”

“There was that time last summer I made you a cake with both of us in it and our little figures disappeared before you saw it,” Phineas recalled.

“That was very unsubtle of you.”

“Wasn’t it?”

They talked all night.


End file.
